In 1991 I bought my first Saint Etienne record. It was the 12 Inch to Only Love Can Break Your Heart from the local dj shop Starsound on Yonge street. The purchase was to lead to a 21 year obsession with the best band in the world. On Wednesday night Saint Etienne kicked off their North American tour in support of their latest album Words And Music with their only Canadian stop, Toronto. This was the band's fifth stop in Toronto over an 18 year period. The band was last in town 10 years ago (they missed Canada on the 2006 North American Tour).
History of Toronto Shows
SETOR1 Phoenix Concert Theatre September 21, 1994
SETOR2 Lee's Palace May 24, 1999
SETOR3 Opera House October 4th , 2000
SETOR4 Opera House November 23, 2002
SETOR5 Opera House October 24, 2012
Night started out good with the opportunity to purchase a 2CD US pressing of Words and Music with a bonus disc of some rare unreleased material not available anywhere else. A present from the band for going so many years of scrambling for UK only pressings.
The opening band for the night was Snowblink, a Californian/Canadian duo on the Arts and Crafts label. Some nice soft indie acoustic music. Lead singer with guitar with antlers. Hmmmmm.
Saint Etienne hit the stage at 10:15. No band this time around. Just Bob and Pete behind the electronics buried in the back. Up front centre Sarah in a gorgeous glittery discoball type outfit. Debsey in tow for background vocals and instrumentation. Nice!!! Started out with Like A Motorway and a whirlwind through the hits. Instant dancefloor!!. By the end we had grooved through 16 tracks including 6 from the new album and 10 singles. Rumoured third single DJ from Words and Music sounded epic on the big system. Felt like the early nineties all over again. This was the set list:
Like a Motorway (Tiger Bay 1994)
Who Do You Think You Are (So Tough 1993; sorta)
Burnt out Car (Continental 1997)
Popular (Words And Music 2012)
Spring (Foxbase Alpha 1991)
Haunted Jukebox (Words And Music 2012)
When I was 17 (Words And Music 2012)
You're In A Bad Way (So Tough 1993)
Good Thing (Tales From Turnpike House 2005)
Sylvie (Good Humor 1998)
Tonight (Words And Music 2012)
Only Love Can Break Your Heart ((Foxbase Alpha 1991 (Original)/Foxbase Beta 2009 (Remix))
Dj (Words And Music 2012)
Nothing Can Stop Us (Foxbase Alpha 1991)
Encore
I Got Your Music (Words And Music 2012)
He's On The Phone (He's On The Phone Single 1995)
*Note no tracks from Sound Of Water (2000) and Finisterre (2002)
By the end of the encore the crowd looked for more and chanted and clapped for about 5 minutes even with the cue of pre-recorded music to end of the night humming in the background. Alas it wasn't to be and the lights came on leaving us hopeing that they will be back sooner than 2022.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MklMuFNtXVs
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